Can higher cigarette taxes improve birth outcomes?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Evans, WN; Ringel, JS
• 署名单位: University System of Maryland; University of Maryland College Park; National Bureau of Economic Research; Louisiana State University System; Louisiana State University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/S0047-2727(98)00090-5
• 发表日期: 1999
• 页码: 135-154
• 关键词: cigarette excise taxes; Birth outcomes; H2; 112; 118

摘要

This study examines whether higher state cigarette taxes can be used to improve birth outcomes. Data on the outcomes of interest are taken from the 1989-1992 Natality Detail files, generating a sample of roughly 10.5 million births. The results suggest that smoking participation among pregnant women declines and average birth weights rise when excise taxes are increased. These results can be used to form an instrumental variables estimate of the impact of smoking on birth weight. This estimate is remarkably close to numbers from a random assignment clinical trial. The smoking participation price elasticity is estimated to be - 0.5. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.